The US Supreme Court has agreed today to hear the appeal from only one of the now four appellate cases available to them.  Two appeals courts ruled that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was constitutional, one that the individual mandate was not constitutional but the rest of the law withstood constitutional muster, and a fourth that stated the issue was not yet timely until after the 2014 individual mandate penalties took affect.  The Supreme Court also will hear the challenge of whether the Medicaid changes enacted as part of PPACA imposing new requirements on both the federal and state levels is within the purview of the US Congress.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), among other requirements insurers and health plans are to provide a new “summary of the Summary” Plan Description, known as the Summary of Benefits and Coverage (or, as it was known in the Act, the Uniform Explanation of Coverage), starting on March 23, 2012.  The Act’s purpose was straight-forward and clear: help participants be better able to choose a plan by having all plans provide information in a similar fashion.  Unlike most all other legislation, including the PPACA, the items for an SBC were very specific, as were the formatting and layout.  It was to be no more than four pages long, with a font of no less than 12 point, and had to contain information that would easily fill 10 or more pages under even the best of circumstances (unless your idea of a page was more a museum-sized mural).

In order to assist employers, insurers, and health plans come up with this new participant disclosure, the Act required three federal agencies–the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury–with providing a model of this new four page document by March 23, 2011.

Well, on August 17, 2011, almost five months after the law’s own requirement, the agencies did provide a model notice.  Surprise–they too couldn’t fit all of the required information onto four pages (it took them six).  Even better, they then added one of the items required for this document, a glossary of common plan terms, onto another notice to provide to participants.  So by the end there are 8 pages of information for employers, insurers, and plans to distribute.  Apparently the law’s requirement of four pages means four double-sided pages.

But wait, there’s more.  Under the proposed rules, as required by the PPACA, in the event there is a material change in the plan benefits or coverages, a new Summary must be provided to participants no later than 60 days before the start of the new changes, except for a plan renewal or extension.

Stay tuned.  I expect we’ll see a push for a number of items related to the new SBC.  First will be requests to delay the implementation date since the federal agencies were almost five months late getting employers and carriers the needed model information.  Second, expect to see requests for a safe harbor for small employers in order to meet this new requirement.

The IRS has just released the new limits for 2012 for individuals or employers sponsoring a Health Savings Account (HSA) program.  In IRS Revenue Procedure 2011-32, the deductible for a qualifying high deductible health plan must be at least $1,200 for individual coverage, and at least $2,400 for family coverage, no change from the minimum HDHP requirements in 2011.  Further, the maximum out-of-pocket charges (including deductibles, co-pays, and coinsurance) of the underlying HDHP cannot exceed $6,050 for individual coverage or $12,100 for family coverage.

Lastly, the maximum contribution to an HSA is $3,100 for individual coverage, or $6,250 for family coverage in 2012.  This represents a slight increase from 2011′s $3,050 individual and $6,150 family limits.